In my family there are two types of people with a sweet tooth: those who love(d) to bake and those who love(d) to eat all kinds of sweets. And somehow I am a member of both groups.
My grandma, who I am sure has influenced my passion for pastries, pastry shops and sweet flavours, used to go to the city a few times a week to meet with her friends over a cup of coffee and a good pastry.
In the early days of this food blog journey she once came to me and said that she wishes nothing more than a homemade Luxembourgish raisin bread (Cramique or Kiermeskuch). She fumbled in an old box, and held up a piece of paper on which was written this very recipe. At that time, I had taken over my grandpa’s mission to bake all the things the other family members wanted a homemade edition from. So I accepted the challenge. And here we are, with my family’s very own version of the Kiermeskuch.
Even though you can still buy this raisin bread in all the local bakeries, the tradition around it is about to disappear. In former times, all the small villages had their own little fairs at different times of the year. It weren’t the big ones with roller coasters but rather small attractions. The local wind section played a Kiermes song called Hemmelsmarsch. Kids were following them and on Sunday, the actual fair day, families gathered and had the traditional Fair dishes like: Kirmes soup, Kiermes ham and this recipe the Kiermeskuch (Kiermescake). And one thing, that I learned way later than I should have is, that tradition is to have the Kiermeskuch with the ham.
Due to the urbanisation of the bigger towns these kinds of traditions are about to slowly disappear. But my dad’s doing his best to prepare us regularly the Luxembourgish Kiermes soup. And sometimes, I bring along my homemade raisin bread. I’m sure my grandpa would be really happy to see that within the family, the baking takeover was a great success!
Cramique
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- 7 g dry yeast
- 40r g sugar
- 300 ml warm milk
- 1 pinch of salt
- 30 g butter
- 2 eggs
- 175 g raisins
Instructions
- Put the flour into a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl whisk the yeast the sugar and the warm milk until the yeast is completely dissolved. Then add the liquid to the flour
- In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs and add them to the flour dough.
- Now add the butter and a pinch of salt and start kneading for around ten minutes.
- Kneading is a necessary step to ensure the bread dough rises properly afterwards.
- When the kneading is done fold in the raisins.
- Cover the dough with a towel and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 250°
- Now put the dough into a loaf pan and for 10 minutes.
- Decrease the temperature to 200° and bake another 40 minutes.
DID YOU MAKE THE RECIPE?
Share your creations and tag me @passionmeetscreativity #passionmeetscreativity. I can’t wait to see what you’ve made!
